It was the summer of 2008. At that point, the nomadic New Line Theatre was bringing the theatrical version of High Fidelity to a stage inside the Mallinckrodt Center at Washington University. It was the first time the play had been performed off of Broadway, and the success of the work here was a strong catalyst in the play enjoying a renewed life in regional presentations around the country.
When constructing the latest season for his company, New Line topper Scott Miller was asked by a board member to consider which play from a past season he’d want to revive. With almost no time passing between question and answer, Miller declared High Fidelity his pick. And, now, St. Louis gets a second chance to see what was a nearly sold-out production in ‘08, inside of the intimate, 210-seat Washington University South Campus Theatre (located in what was the former CBC High School on Clayton Road).
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As it turns out, Miller says that as the director, he’s got a good head start on the material. At the beginning of rehearsals last week, he says that “I realized when we started that I had all the staging still in my head, which was interesting. As it turns out, some of the staging will turn out a lot like the last time. And some of it will be updated.” The cast, meanwhile, contains “about two-thirds new performers. It was really difficult to think about who to ask back, because we’ve had a lot of new performers come into New Line over the last year. And they’re making their own choices with the material, which is fun to watch. It’s a whole new adventure.”
To begin the process, Miller says that he contacted Jeff Wright, who played the lead character, Rob Gordon, in the initial run. “I said that I wanted to stage it with him again,” Miller says. “He didn’t even have to think about it before saying ‘yes.’”
High Fidelity, in all three of its lives, has the Rob character in the central, critical role. In the brilliant 1995 novel by Nick Hornby, he’s Rob Fleming, a cynical, album-obsessed, 30-something record store owner, whose life in London veers between a desire for monogamy and the unfailing need to let at least one eye wander. In 2000, director Stephen Frears had John Cusack in the role of the newly-dubbed Rob Gordon, whose record store, musical compulsions and love life had become Americanized, with the story told in Chicago. A pretty solid adaptation of the book, it featured an early star-turn by Jack Black and made just few enough changes from the book to keep Hornby’s fans happy.
In 2006, the work was adapted to the stage. And it was only two years later that New Line brought the work to St. Louis. Miller says that the fans came in all stripes, from record collectors who worshipped the original tome, to patrons of live theatre unfamiliar with the story’s former guises. Mostly, though, he noticed that men and women saw the charmingly cavalier lifestyle of Rob as the emotional fulcrum of their experience.
“A lot of the women who saw the work said that they’d dated guys like Rob,” Miller says. “And a lot of the guys were ‘Oh, no, this is telling them how we think.’ It’s interesting, because Rob, for much of the play, is really a dick. But you end up with this emotional connection with him, people really feel that the character of Rob is a real person.”
St. Louisans will get 12 chances to view the newly-mounted show, beginning about a month from now, as it runs May 31 through June 23, 2012, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, at the Washington University South Campus Theatre, 6501 Clayton Road. (May 31 is a preview. Tickets are on sale now through all Metrotix outlets, including the Fox Theatre and the Edison Theatre at Washington University, or by calling 314-534-1111. Ticket info, as well as a blog tracking rehearsals and performances, can be found at newlinetheatre.com.)
The new location, Miller offers, will also allow patrons a chance for a fuller evening out, with restaurants located within walking distance of the venue. “We haven’t had that opportunity with all of our theatres,” Miller says.
And, if they’re feeling especially like indulging, Vintage Vinyl on Delmar stays open until midnight on the weekends, just a few minutes away. Depending on who’s clerking a given shift, your experience can involve an ethnographic study of how closely art and real life mesh.
